


The Bright Side

by kethni



Category: The Brady Bunch Movie
Genre: Bad Jokes, F/M, Married Couple, request fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28268625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kethni/pseuds/kethni
Summary: Carol leaned up to kiss him. ‘You always know the right thing to say.’Mike smiled. ‘I just want you to be happy.’
Relationships: mike brady/carol brady
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	The Bright Side

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to crazymaryt for the suggestion.

The house was so quiet. On any given day, at any given hour, there were normally kids shouting, feet running, the washing machine spinning, music playing… Gosh, just a million and one things happening. Even first thing in the morning, like now, he could normally hear whispered arguments and the weird creaking floor in Alice’s bedroom. The attic floor had started creaking too, since Greg and Marcia had moved up there. It was probably just the weight.

Carol stretched out on the bed. ‘Are you missing the kids?’

‘Just enjoying the peace,’ Mike said, with a grin. He glanced at his watch. It was top of the line. _Digital_. He was the talk of the office. ‘They’ll be back from your mom’s in a couple of hours.’

‘I hope Alice comes before then,’ Carol said.

‘Now, you know that Alice always comes quickly,’ Mike promised.

‘Maybe we should have picked her up.’

Mike rolled over to face his wife. ‘You know that she’d rather come with Sam. She prefers it to coming with me or with us.’

Carol nodded. ‘I know.’ She touched Mike’s hand. ‘It’s always a relief when she comes back from vacation. I just can’t equal her meat loaf.’

‘Hey, come on now, you know I will always eat anything of yours,’ Mike said.

Carol smiled and the world was a brighter place. ‘I can think of at least one thing I always enjoy you eating.’

***

Carol regarded the drapes thoughtfully. They had been a bright yellow and purple paisley once, but they were beginning to look a little worn. There was only one thing for it.

‘Mike!’ she called.

She heard movement upstairs. It really was so useful that even though the house was just big enough for all of them you could quite easily hear almost movement all the way across the other side of the house. It was a masterpiece of design and engineering!

‘Just a second!’ Mike called.

He was in his den. That was his sanctuary. He would sometimes come home from long hours at work and lock himself in there. Carol had been to Mike’s office a couple of times. She didn’t know _how_ the women who worked there could possibly find the time to be good housewives and work full time jobs! It was honestly awe-inspiring. Although, and she would _never_ say this out loud, but she didn’t think that they looked very professional. Trouser suits? Goodness. Was it an architecture firm or a nightclub?

Mike came down the stairs. He looked a little flushed.

‘Stop right there! I’m taking your temperature.’

‘Honey, I’m fine,’ he protested weekly. ‘I was just… exercising.’

Carol popped the thermometer under his tongue. ‘Did you buy some weights? I didn’t see them arrive.’

‘Uh, no, just… callisthenics,’ he said, his words muffled by the thermometer.

Carol was perplexed. ‘I didn’t hear you jumping around.’

Mike put his hand on his hip. ‘It’s a low… impact exercise.’

‘Oh,’ she said, taking out the thermometer and looking at it. ‘Well we do want you to be full of vim and vigour, Mr Brady.’

‘I absolutely will be, in another fifteen or twenty minutes,’ he said.

‘Good!’ she said, sweetly.

Mike waited a couple of moments. ‘So… why did you call?’

‘Oh!’ She spread out her hands to encompass the drapes. ‘I think that these need to be replaced.’

‘We’ve hardly had them any time,’ Mike said, shaking his head.

‘Things just don’t seem to last the way they used to,’ Carol said sadly.

Mike put his arms around her. ‘Some things last.’

Carol leaned her cheek against his strong, manly chest. ‘Oh, Mike. The kids are getting older. It won’t be long until Greg and Marcia are looking at colleges.’

‘Carol, our lives may change, they’ve changed before, and they’ll change again, but change can be a kind of stability, a way of things not changing, as long as you accept that things are changing.’

She looked up at him. ‘Uh… okay.’

‘You see, you might think that you’re on solid ground, but really you’re not. You’re standing on a planet spinning around a sun in a vast, indifferent, and cold universe,’ Mike said. ‘It’s just a matter of perspective.’

‘Right,’ Carol said slowly. ‘Do you want to go for a drive? Remember when we used to do that, when we were courting?’

Mike waggled his eyebrows. ‘I remember we used to lots of things when we were courting.’

‘Oh Mike,’ she said coquettishly. ‘Can we ride with the top down?’

He nodded. ‘I do like to give everything a good airing.’

***

Carol felt girlish as she slipped her hand into Mike’s. They had parked the car were having a brief stroll through the park.

‘We can shop for some more drapes at the weekend,’ Mike suggested.

‘I love a shopping trip,’ Carol said.

Mike bumped her gently with his shoulder. ‘You feeling a little more yourself?’

‘I think so,’ she said. ‘I suppose it’s different for me. You have an important career. My job is looking after the kids and, well, I guess that I’ve seen the end of it.’

Mike cupped her face in his hands. ‘Not for years,’ he promised. ‘And we don’t even know what the future may bring. The first Mrs Brady worried about this kind of thing too and, well, she didn’t need to as things turned out.’

Carol nodded. ‘You’re right. I might die before Cindy and Peter leave home.’

‘That’s it!’ Mike said. ‘You have to look on the bright side.’

Carol leaned up to kiss him. ‘You always know the right thing to say.’

Mike smiled. ‘I just want you to be happy.’

‘I’m very happy,’ she promised. ‘And if it comes to it, I suppose I can possibly look at getting a job.’

‘Oh no,’ Mike said. ‘I have my pride. No wife of mine is going to _work_. There’s a time and a place for working girls, and that’s not in the house.’

The End


End file.
